Ian Miller is becoming another scoring option for FSU

7:40 p.m. EST, March 7, 2012|By Coley Harvey, Orlando Sentinel

ATLANTA — For most of the season, Michael Snaer was Florida State's sharpshooter. The Seminoles' resident 3-point assassin with games on the line, his steady hands were the ones that tossed in a pair of game-winning buckets and helped sparked several late rallies.

But weeks before the regular season started coming to a close, another FSU guard started matching his efforts. Those efforts led to the following question being posed to Snaer following the Seminoles' Wednesday afternoon ACC Tournament shootaround at Philips Arena:

A week ago Thursday, Miller knocked down a 3-pointer with 0.8 seconds remaining in the Seminoles' eventual 63-60 win over Virginia. Thanks to Snaer's earlier buzzer-beater over Duke and last-second 3 against Virginia Tech, the Cavaliers were expecting the junior to take the meaningful final shot.

They didn't realize a sophomore bench player would actually take it.

They didn't realize it was Miller Time.

This weekend, with their sights set on a first-ever ACC Tournament title, the 17th-ranked Seminoles (21-9, 12-4 ACC) will look to Miller to continue to provide the type of heroics that became commonplace as the season neared its end. FSU's conference tournament run begins around 9 p.m. Friday, when they take on the winner of Thursday night's Miami-Georgia Tech game.

"He's bringing another element to the game," FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said about Miller's recent play.

In the last six games, Miller has come off the bench and shot 14-for-32 from beyond the 3-point arc. He's been in double figures in five of those games to add to his narrow stranglehold on second-place among the team's leading scorers.

Outside of Tallahassee, Miller may not have the same name recognition as his elder teammate Snaer, but of late, his offensive exploits haven't been far off. While Snaer, who was named this week a second-team All-ACC selection, leads the team with 14.1 points per game, Miller has 10.8 points per game. Miller also has racked up those points in nearly seven minutes of action less per game.

"He's just now starting to get comfortable playing with confidence and rhythm in relation to our system and the rotation how we're using him," Hamilton said. "But to have a guy who's capable of coming off the bench and giving you that firepower is extremely important."

Such firepower is particularly important this time of year, when fresh legs that can drop buzzer-beaters and last-minute buckets can offset opposing teams' counter-surges.

"It's doing our team good to have another option," Miller said. "To have someone who can come off the bench and do the same thing as the starters can. It's just about depth. And like Coach says, our strength is in our depth."

After missing nearly all of the non-conference schedule due to academic issues, Miller understood that his personal learning curve would have to be steep. Whatever time on the floor that he missed would have to be made up immediately.

According to senior guard Deividas Dulkys, Miller has begun proving that he has received that message.

"He's gotten much better in practices and games. He's maturing," Dulkys said. "He's not doing anything bad now. Like all of us, he's just got to be focused more and stay mature. … He has the talent to do it."